BY KAREN BOSSICK

Sun Valley historian John W. Lundin has been voted into the American Ski Jumping Hall of Fame Class of 2026. He will be inducted in a ceremony in August at the Red Wing Golf Course and Event Center in Red Wing, Minn.

And it’ll be couple with--not a day of ski jumping—but a round of golf!

Other inductees include Dave Engstrom, Lyle Boucher, Patti Grady and Bernie Wells

“This is quite an honor to be inducted as an historian, not an athlete,” said Lundin.  “There is just one other historian in the hall as far as I can tell.  Nice to have my work recognized.”

Lundin has created a number of books, articles and exhibits on ski jumping, which was the darling of early skiing in North America, attracting thousands of spectators before ski racing and freestyle skiing caught on.

His book “Ski Jumping in Washington State: A Nordic Tradition,” was the companion to two ski jumping exhibits he helped to create.

The first titled "Sublime Sights: Ski Jumping and Nordic America," was at Seattle's National Nordic Museum. The second, "Skiers in Flight: Sun Valley's Ski Jumping Roots," was exhibited at the Sun Valley History Museum housed in the white and green Forest Service Buildings in Forest Service Park before the history exhibits moved to the Wood River Museum of Culture + History.

The Far West Ski Association awarded Lundin the Western Ski Heritage award for his multi-year "Work to Preserve Ski Jumping History, Expressing Norwegian Identity, and its Role in the Development of Skiing in America."  

“You are most deserving of this award and we are all grateful for the work that you have put into the sport of Ski Jumping,” said Greg Windsperger, who broke the news to Lundin.  

In addition to his book, Lundin has written a couple magazine articles about ski jumping in North America:

In addition to writing about ski jumping, Lundin has written a book titled “Early Skiing on Snoqualmie Pass.” He has also written “Skiing Sun Valley: A History from Union Pacific to the Holdings,” published in 2020, and “Sun Valley, Ketchum and the Wood River Valley.” Valley.

He and his brother recently published a book about their grandfather Mark Odell who dropped out of Cornell Law School in 1898 to mine for gold in the Klondike Gold Rush.

Lundin a Seattle native, received B.A. and J.D. degrees from the University of Washington and a Master of Urban and Regional planning from George Washington University. He practiced law in Washington, D.C. and Seattle as a federal attorney and private practice trial attorney.

His work on ski jumping details how ski jumping was brought to the country by Norwegian immigrants. For decades competitions attracted between 10,000 and 100,00 spectators in days when access was not that easy.

“I found my obsessive-compulsive genes did not go away when I stopped law practice and I had to dive into the new life of being an author and historian,” he said.